By Ebi Kesiena
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order declaring that his proposal to sell the US arm of Chinese-owned TikTok to American and international investors meets the national security requirements set out in a 2024 law.
Vice President JD Vance revealed the new company would be valued at around $14 billion, a figure that falls well below the estimates of several analysts.
Enforcement of the law banning TikTok unless it is divested by its Chinese owners has now been postponed until 20 January. The delay gives time to separate the U.S. business from the global platform, attract investors, and secure Beijing’s approval.
The executive order signals movement on the deal, though major questions remain particularly over TikTok’s recommendation algorithm, widely considered its most valuable asset.
“There was some resistance on the Chinese side, but the fundamental thing that we wanted to accomplish is that we wanted to keep TikTok operating, but we also wanted to make sure that we protected Americans’ data privacy as required by law,” Vance told reporters at the White House.
Under the order, the algorithm will be retrained and monitored by the new U.S. company’s security partners, with operational control transferred to the joint venture. Trump added that Chinese President Xi Jinping had expressed support. “I spoke with President Xi, we had a good talk, I told him what we were doing and he said go ahead with it.” Trump said
Trump, who has 15 million TikTok followers, has credited the platform with helping his re-election campaign. The White House also launched an official account last month. “This is going to be American-operated all the way,” Trump insisted, naming Dell founder Michael Dell, Rupert Murdoch and several other major investors as backers of the deal.
No details were provided on how the $14 billion valuation was reached. ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, is valued at over $330 billion under its latest employee share buyback scheme. Analysts at Wedbush Securities estimated earlier this year that TikTok’s U.S. operations without the algorithm could still be worth between $30 billion and $40 billion.
Alan Rozenshtein, a University of Minnesota law professor, said: “The problem is that the president has certified the deal, but he has not provided a lot of information on the algorithm”.
